The Atlanta Falcons New Stadium Will Be The Coolest Building In The World, But At What Cost?

Every event held at this venue — which doesn’t have a name yet, by the way — will be a spectacle. Super Bowls. Final Fours. Disappointing regular seasons. Everything. Even James Taylor concerts.

The stadium walls will be built out of a translucent glass-like product that will let in natural light. Huge concourse windows can be opened to let in a breeze. There will also be a window to the city that will allow a view of downtown Atlanta.

MMmmmmMmmm, that fresh downtown Atlanta breeze. I can almost smell it now…

(Or it could be this leaky canister of Axe Bodyspray rolling around in the trashcan next to my desk.)

Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, has stated that the dreaded individual seat license scamscheme concept will be implemented to offset the costs of building the stadium. “I promise you this is going to be a world-class sports entertainment facility that will be equal or better to anything in the world today,” Blank said, implying that the licenses — which literally are just huge lumps of money you have to pay before buying season tickets — will be expensive. And somewhat arbitrary.

[Via WSBTV] “We’ll have sponsor partners in the four corners of the stadium. We’ll have sponsorships throughout the building, various ways to offset some of the cost,”….He would not reveal numbers but said they will be less than other teams.

Ya, right. Getting tickets to watch football at this stadium will be like buying a roundtrip flight on the Concord. How do we know they’ll be expensive? Well, for starters, they’re always expensive. Then there’s the fact that PSLs have appreciated in value over the last few years. That’s good news for people selling their 10-year-old licenses in places like Baltimore and Chicago, where owners have more than doubled their money. But it’s bad news for fans of teams building stadiums today. Why? Because those franchises see what’s happened elsewhere in the league, and will jack up the prices of licenses to better reflect their future value. You pay more, and consequently, can’t flip your PSLs for the same profit you could have, say, 11 years ago.